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GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert's reelection bid is at risk in tight race against Adam Frisch

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) arrives for a news conference with members of the House Freedom Caucus on Capitol Hill in September.
Drew Angerer
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Getty Images
U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) arrives for a news conference with members of the House Freedom Caucus on Capitol Hill in September.

Updated November 10, 2022 at 7:52 AM ET

Follow live updates and results from the 2022 midterm election here.

One of the most-watched races that's still undecided after Election Day is in Colorado, where Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert's reelection bid is under serious threat from Democratic challenger Adam Frisch.

Frisch held a slight lead over Boebert for much of Tuesday night; by Wednesday afternoon, the gap had narrowed to a razor-thin edge. As of early Thursday, just 64 votes stood between Frisch and Boebert with 99% of the vote accounted for, according to the AP.

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The final tally is not yet known, but the race is not expected to go to a runoff: Like most U.S. states, Colorado requires candidates to capture a plurality, not a majority, of the vote to win office.

Moreover, Colorado law requires a recount for any race where the gap between the top two finishers is 0.5% or less. And the current election results show Frisch has 50.01% of the vote, to Boebert's 49.99%.

Boebert has been one of the loudest Republican voices amplifying former President Trump's baseless claims of widespread election fraud, as well as supporting QAnon conspiracy theories. On Election Day, she was one of many Republicans predicting a "red wave" of GOP wins. But late on election night, Boebert prayed with her supporters and said she's hoping to get a boost from in-person voting.

Frisch, viewed as a centrist, previously served on the Aspen City Council. Faced with an opponent with strong name recognition and a penchant for outlandish remarks, Frisch built "a coalition of normal," Colorado Democratic Party Chair Morgan Carroll tells member station Colorado Public Radio.

"He has specifically courted all normal Republicans" in the district, courted independent voters and shored up his base, Carroll said.

Early in her congressional tenure, Boebert drew criticism for insisting she would carry a gun in the Capitol, even after the building came under violent attack. This summer, Boebert's stance on a central U.S. tenet was called into question after she stated, "I am tired of this separation of church and state junk."

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Bill Chappell is a writer and editor on the News Desk in the heart of NPR's newsroom in Washington, D.C.
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